A good friend of ours took this picture a few weeks ago of Lexie with my mom, Karyn, at a birthday party. Can I just tell you, it melts my heart and I know that Lexie will love and cherish this photo as much as I will when she grows up.

Before Grandma left Mike took a day off to take us up to the Rastanura beach. It's one of the other company compounds, but this one is right on the beach. A beautiful beach (normally without all the seaweed you see.) This is the boys favorite beach to collect sea shells and they spend most of their time running up and down the water filling their buckets with them.

And when they weren't looking for seashells they were digging in the sand and burying each other. I've said it before, but really it needs to be said again, the boys have the best dad.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

I was on the computer one afternoon and turned to find this. Carter laying down to talk to Lexie. She loves it when the boys talk to her and gives them the best smiles. I can already tell she will have them wrapped around her finger.

Owen loves to hold Lexie. She wasn't too happy this time, I think she was hungry. But even with her crying he wanted to hold her and comfort her.

Owen usually gets the lucky seat next to her in the car and will hold her hand and tell her it's ok, over and over again if she cries. He's so gentle and caring with her. Always concerned where she is and is constantly walking into the room just to give her a smooch and then walks out of the room and goes back to whatever he was doing before. This kiddo was meant to be a big brother for his little sister.

The boys. Over spring break Owen would pass out of the couch for his naps and Carter would either snuggle him or bother him and try to wake him up. They are truly partners in crime these days now that they are sharing a room. When it goes from loud to almost silent you know they are up to something, which lately seems to almost always have something to do with bugs or snacks. Silly boys.

Three kids, my oh my! We've got a full house.

(well maybe not compared to other people, but three under four is a full house for us.)Hugs, A

It's always a treat to get off camp and go to dinner. Not necessarily a treat to drive there ( I believe I may have forgotten how awful the driving here is when I was gone and pretty sure my knuckles turn white as I clutch whatever I can while we are driving.)

We took my mom back to the Arabic restaurant and were able to score the large room again so the boys could run circles while we waited for our food. This is the place you sit on the floor with pillows and you have a private room with a closed door- totally little kiddo friendly.

These are their tough faces, although not much difference for Owen who would rather give a silly face than a smile for pictures right now.

Grandma.

A trip to downtown Khobar to take my mom to our favorite bakery.

The boys ordering our cheesebread from the family section of the bakery. Carter and Owen push the chairs over to the counter so they can talk to the baker. He usually gives them free juice and jokes with them about taking their baby sister home.

Mom, Lexie and Owen ( a rare smile). The family section is just a box of a room, no windows and a few booth/ picnic tables.

We also stopped for dinner at Johnny Carinos in Bahrain before we took my mom to the airport. Which explains why my mom and I were able to wear normal clothes and weren't in our awesome 'black dresses.' This was our first time eating there over here and it was so yummy, just like back in the States.

Poor Mike ends up holding Lexie for most meals and has mastered the one handed meal eating.

Owen scaling the chairs, but I did get a pretty good smile while he was in the act.

I'll tell you what, it's refreshing to have dinner in my own clothes and to have music in the background. A few little things we don't get to enjoy in the sandbox.

Once they figured out what it meant to dye eggs, they were all over it!

The Easter baskets. Both boys dug into and devoured most of it before any of us got up in the morning. Hence not a picture with them holding their baskets. But I must say the Easter Bunny did dang good this year. The big hits, the lightening bug flashlights and bag of fake bugs.

Easter Sunday we went to the park for a picnic with several other families. We each brought a dish or two to share and then had a large egg hunt for the kids.

Owen was very selective in the eggs he wanted to take. He would pick them up, open them, and if he didn't like what he saw, he put them back on the ground. Hilarious really. Carter on the other hand was on fire, he was running every which direction filling his basket and took enough eggs for the both of them.

My mom has retreated back to the States after two weeks of rocking our baby and wrangling little boys. I don't think I've ever been so emotional saying goodbye to her at the airport as I was last Thursday. This was a hard goodbye.

We celebrated Easter, did the egg hunt thing, went to the beach, spent a few afternoons at the pool where Lexie has already learned to love snoozing in the chair lounge poolside, library runs, started teaching Boot Camp again, played in the yard, organized the garage and sorted little boy clothes, mommy finally had a chance to sleep in and work out while grandma took care of the troupes at home. We even managed a date night and a few in town runs with grandma.

It's been a busy, yet not very productive three weeks. But such is life with a new baby. We do a lot of hanging out and rocking, walking, managing chaos and learning how to manage three little ones.

I have decided that with each child you should grow another arm. I mean really, I NEED another hand. Could you imagine how productive the Duggar lady would be with like 20 arms!

So yes, once again still alive. Don't worry we have not been lost in the sandbox.A bit behind on blogging, but it's on the to do list.

Monday, April 2, 2012

She's starting to fill in with some rolls on her arms and thighs. She's figuring the sleeping thing out and will usually sleep from 11 to anywhere between 4 and 6 a.m. Hurray!

She still won't take a pacifier and prefers a good bounce over a sway any day. We chalk that one up to me teaching boot camp for so long. She's used to the bounce of jumping jacks and such. We did break down and spend WAY too much money (about double what you pay in the states) on a swing that sways both directions. But she will sit in that making it worth it.

She's still having some tummy issues causing her to cry for a few hours each night and at most feedings. We are working through it and praying she feels better. The past two weeks we've been struggling with B. movements, she'll go 3 days, then 2 and this last time 5 days before having one. We're dealing with issues that we've never dealt with. The silver lining is that Mike is here so much more than he could when we had the boys. So we are doing this together and it makes a ton of difference having a team mate.

The smiles that are coming more often melt my heart and more than make up for the screaming times. We are also having more moments when she is happy and hanging out. The boys love these moments and take the time to talk to her and love on her.